Did You Know...

... that two German teams copied Banja Luka's tie-breaking adventure on Saturday?

Tied after Round 10 on Saturday in Banja Luke: USA and France, here with Bodyflight Isis

posted Aug 19th, 2013 -
It's time to catch up with other events that happened while the Sun Path Products NSL News focused all attention on the World Cup 2013 in Banja Luka. The aftermath of the event will bring much more information to the audience, while the daily news updates will resume covering the rest of the skydiving world, as well.

A regional competition took place in Germany while the teams in Banja Luka had their semifinals and finals on Saturday. Golden Knights and Aerodyne French Girls had one of the most exciting 11-round battles in the history of the sport, and two German teams were copying the drama at the Mid German Championships.

The two female world class teams were tied in 1st place after Round 8, and AtomiX and Timber were also tied after Round 8 in Eisenach. The national teams of France and the USA continued trying to break their tie, while bad weather stopped the two German teams at about the same time when the jump-off was done in Banja Luka.

All four teams in Banja Luka and Eisenach were tied at the end of their jumping options, and the additional tie breaking rules had to be applied in both cases. The French Girls won the gold medals with their 27-pointer in Round 2, while both German teams had 14-pointers as their highest scores for a round.

The German officials had to dig even deeper into the IPC rules to break the tie. Finally, AtomiX was declared the winner in Germany, even though the decision would not follow the IPC rules. According to the current IPC rules, the tie breaker is "the highest score in any completed round". The next level is "the highest score starting with the last completed round and continuing in reverse order, round by round until the tie is broken".

The officials in Banja Luka had little work to determine the winner after the jump-off round on Saturday. It was more complicated in Germany. The meet was cut short due to the weather conditions and over after eight rounds. The teams had no opportunity for Round 9 or Round 10 or a jump-off round, and the tie-breaking rules came into play.

French Girls Jumpoff

Golden Knights Jumpoff

Open IPC Meeting on Sunday in Banja Luka

It was a dramatic ending since Round 8 would be the first round to look at. AtomiX had completed 13 points within working time and lost two points due to a bad video angle after the exit. Nobody knew at this point in time that those video busts would turn out to be the main factor in the tie breaking procedure. Timber would be the winner according to the IPC rules.

The IPC Competition Committee, with Chair Trude Sviggum, discussed the tie-breaking rules with teams and competitors during the traditional open meeting on Sunday before the award ceremony.

There is a good chance that the last level of the current rules will replace the complete current version soon: "The fastest time (measured to hundredths of a second) to the last common scoring formation in the last completed round." The Golden Knights would have been the winner in Banja Luka under those tie-breaking rules...